PANAJI
Meteorologists may have declared the Southwest Monsoon officially withdrawn but Goa's farmers, continue to face the brunt of rains which in several cases has disrupted operations of their kharif paddy crop harvesting.
Harvest operations began across the State around two weeks ago and Director of Agriculture, Sandeep Fol Desai said, it has got disrupted in some places where crops have fallen because of the weather.
"When the rice crop falls, mechanical harvesting, which is now the norm, is not possible. These crops will have to be harvested using manual labour," Fol Desai said.
He however said it is too early to estimate the extent of the damage as the harvesting season has only just begun.
The rainfall over the last two weeks from the withdrawing monsoon is bad news for several farmers whose crop is ready to harvest as the accompanying winds cause the paddy stalk to wilt and fall.
Although the crop per-se may not get damaged in instances of fallen crop, it makes harvesting all the more difficult and adds to the farmer's input costs. Additional labourers will be required to harvest the fallen crop manually as it is impossible to be done mechanically.
In Bardez and Salcete, where paddy fields are usually low-lying, water-logging has been reported in many areas but officials from the Zonal Agriculture Officers (ZAOs) hope the weather will relent and damage to crop minimised.
